WHISTLER 



6270 



WHITE 



J. A. McN. WHISTLER 



claimed to be a realist, he believed that it was 

 the artists privilege to select only th<>- 

 ments of beauty which, harmoniously arranged, 

 make the picture, just as the musician at the 

 piano selects only certain notes and combines 



to produce 

 beautiful har- 

 monies. Whist- 

 _ ird of 

 ; detail 



is thus explained, 

 and so. too, is ex- 

 plained his ability 

 to make 'a 

 of poverty and 

 squalor a thing of 

 beauty. 



He was born at 

 Lowell, Mass., of 

 parents who en- 

 joyed high social 

 position. His 

 father, Major George Washington Whistler, was 

 an engineer in the United States army. When 

 James was nine years old the family removed to 

 Russia, where the major supervised the building 

 of a railroad for the czar. During this interval 

 the boy attended the Imperial Art Academy of 

 Saint Petersburg (Petrograd). After his return 

 to America he studied at West Point Military 

 Academy, but his tastes were so averse to 

 things military that he was dismissed before 

 completing the course. He began the serious 

 study of art in 1856, in Paris, and in 1859 re- 

 moved to London. From that time on he 

 lived principally in the English metropolis, 

 thouirh he made several trips abroad. 



Whistler early won favorable notice as an 

 etcher. His first important views, Little French 

 Series (1858), were greatly admired, and his 

 reputation was further enhanced by a series 

 illustrating scenes along the Thames, begun 

 i is removal to London. These and vari- 

 ous other series, especially a group of Venetian 

 illustrations, give him a place with Rembrandt 

 among the greatest etchers. Probably the best 

 known of his portraits in oil is the picture <.i 

 his own mother (Luxembourg Gallery, Paris) 

 a charming study in gray and black. An id al- 

 ized portrait of Carlyle may be seen in the 

 Glasgow Museum. His landscape and marine 

 views include Thames in Ice (National Gall- ry, 

 Washington, D. C.), Chelsea Snow, Southamp- 

 <Uer (Art Institute, Chicago), The Ocean 

 tFrick collection) and Valparaiso Harbor (Na- 

 tional Gallery). 



The loveliness of Italy's wonder city, Venice, 

 made an especial appeal to him, and its beauty 

 he portrayed in etching, oil painting and pas- 

 tels. He also exercised wide influence on inte- 

 rior decorating, and his decorations for the 

 famous Peacock Room of his art patron, Fred- 

 erick Leyland (formerly in London, now in the 

 National Gallery, Washington), represent the 

 best in that field. 



So individual a personality as Whistler could 

 hardly escape criticism, and he received it in 

 good measure. He himself was caustic of 

 tongue and fiercely intolerant when the opin- 

 ions of others conflicted with his own, and he 

 used voice and pen unsparingly to overwhelm 

 his critics. Ruskin's expressed contempt for 

 one of Whistler's so-called "Nocturnes" for he 

 styled his pictures symphonies, nocturnes, ar- 

 rangements, etc. brought on a suit for libel, in 

 which Whistler won damages of one farthing. 

 Thereafter the coin was proudly worn by him 

 as a watch charm. His forceful style is well 

 illustrated in his Ten O J Clock, The Gentle Art 

 of Making Enemies and the Baronet and the 

 Butterfly. A very fine collection of Whistler's 

 works may be seen in the National Gallery at 

 Washington, and there are many examples pri- 

 vately owned. R.D.M. 



Consult the authorized biography, Pennell's 

 Life of James McNeill Whistler; Hartmann's 

 The Whistler Book. 



"WHITBY, one of the lake ports of Ontario, 

 with a good harbor. It is located thirty miles 

 northeast of Toronto and about forty miles 

 west of Port Hope. The Grand Trunk and 

 the Canadian Pacific railroads parallel the 

 shore of Lake Ontario, and pass through the 

 town. At Whitby is the Ontario Ladies' Col- 

 lege. Population, 1911, 2,248; in 1917, esti- 

 mated 2,325. 



WHITE, the color seen in pure snow. Ac- 

 cording to the theory of color, white is com- 

 posed of all the colors in the spectrum, but 

 in practice this does not hold true. We can- 

 not make a white pigment by mixing in their 

 proper proportions the pigments corresponding 

 to the colors of the spectrum, because of the 

 impurities they contain. Theoretically a white 

 object reflects all the colors, and a black ob- 

 ject absorbs* all colors; that is, white is the 

 presence of all color and black the absence of 

 all color (see COLOR) . Of the many white paints 

 on the market, that made from white lead is 

 the most widely used. In painting, white is 

 extensively employed to produce light tints of 

 the different colors. 



